Thursday, April 16, 2009
N.J. changes rules for young drivers
I have to say that I am pleased that the topic of safety is coming to the forefront for people driving in cars. We have seen over and over again, the problems that come with people taking the road for granted and putting themselves in positions to hurt not only themselves, but also their passengers and other drivers on the road. New Jersey seems to be taking a strong approach towards this measure by making it easier to identify young drivers on the road with a special sticker to be placed on the back of the car. Now, I do not think that young people are the only ones who should be singled out and for that I am not totally happy with the new laws put into place. However, for anyone who does not have their license and is only driving on their permit, that person should make the other drivers on the road aware of their situations. I know when I was learning to drive, I took a class with a police officer and we practiced in a car that had student driver written on the back. When I finally took the wheel for the first time in this car, it was like a shoulder had been lifted off of my back because other drivers were less reluctant to honk or get mad if I was going to slow or making some mistake on the road. So for me the sticker when I was driving with my instructor was helpful, but I do not think that is always the case. We shouldn't be putting a curfew on a 20 year old simply because they do not have their license. Albeit if you are 20 and do not have your license you may have some other problems, but still once you hit that kind of age, we should be ostracizing you for your lack of initiative in getting the license.
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2 comments:
I have serious issues with this law. The article states that "The intent is to make young drivers more easily identifiable to law enforcement." I'm not a constiutional lawyer, but I have to question the legality of this law. The fifth amendment states that an individual has the right to not testify against himself. The fourth amendement requires probable cause for search and seizure.
By requring that a youth driver place a sticker on his car, they are essentially incriminating themselves if they violate the restrictions of their probationary license. Furthermore, by requiring special identification for a group of people, you are removing their fourth amendment rights to probable cause.
For example, in Oregon youth drivers aren't allowed drive between the hours of 12 and 5 (am). The police can't pull over every car on the suspicion that everyone is under 18, that would violate a persons fourth amendment rights. By requiring this sticker, the driver would essentially be incriminating himself and would remove the restrictions on probable cause.
My question is: how does New Jersey plan to enforce these new changes? All I could find in the article was that failure to put removable decals on the vehicle identifying the driver as a minor carries a $100 fine. How will NJPD enforce moving up the curfew time from midnight to 11 pm?
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